Read the general investor planning overview
A paid invoice, deposit or escrow transfer may carry different cancellation rights. Review those rights before calling the money irrevocably committed. The decision is whether the actual terms support qualifying investment and near-term operations, rather than whether a document happens to use the words deposit, reservation or escrow.
Build a conditions register
List every condition permitting the investor to withdraw, recover money or postpone the transaction. Include side letters and vendor terms, not only the principal agreement. Match each condition to the affected payment. Counsel can then assess the real commitment instead of reviewing a capital total that conceals which amounts remain freely recoverable at the investor’s choice.
Distinguish a visa condition
State guidance recognizes particular visa-conditioned business purchases with committed funds held in escrow. That example should not be expanded to mean every conditional or refundable arrangement qualifies. Provide the agreement and release mechanics together for review. The source record must also explain the money placed into escrow; contractual commitment and lawful acquisition are separate evidentiary questions.
Check readiness after the condition clears
Identify what still must happen before the enterprise can actually operate. A stack of tentative agreements may leave the project at the exploratory stage. Describe completed resources and remaining dependencies honestly. Contract review can help align the commercial commitment with immigration requirements, but it cannot eliminate financial risk or guarantee that the investor will receive a visa.
Build a register of every condition in the transaction
Conditions are scattered across the documents in a transaction and rarely collected anywhere. Build a register listing each one: what it is, which document contains it, who must satisfy it, by when, what happens if it is not met, and whether it gives either party a right to walk away. Include conditions in the purchase agreement, in any financing, in the lease, and in any licence or permit required. Reviewing them together shows how much of the transaction remains genuinely contingent, which is frequently more than the parties assume once each document has been read in isolation.
Check operational readiness once a condition clears
Satisfying a condition advances the transaction and does not by itself make the business able to trade. When a condition clears, revisit the operational position: what still has to happen before the enterprise can serve a customer, what has changed since the plan was written, and whether anything has lapsed in the interim. Leases, quotations, licences and supplier arrangements all have their own validity periods, and a transaction that took longer than expected may arrive at completion with several of them stale. Re-checking at each milestone is a short exercise that prevents the enterprise from being committed and simultaneously unready.
Distinguish a condition from a change of mind
Not every right to withdraw is a condition in the relevant sense. A provision allowing a party to walk away at their own discretion is different in character from one triggered by an external event outside either party's control, and the distinction may matter to whether funds are treated as irrevocably committed. Identify which of the two each provision is, using the wording rather than the label, and put the instruments to counsel where the position is not obvious.
What else is on your mind?
Is there one minimum investment that guarantees E-2 eligibility?Is holding money or owning an asset enough for E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.